Editorial: Mental health courts good for state

One-third of Oklahoma inmates have a severe mental illness, one described by psychiatrists as Axis I: bipolar, major depression, and psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.

Thirty percent of all male inmates are so afflicted, as are a staggering 58 percent of incarcerated women. There is nowhere else to send them besides prison or jail.

As a 2012 report for the National Institute for Justice succinctly explained, “The deinstitutionalization of persons with mental illness that occurred during the 1960s and early 1970s rested on two assumptions: that needed services for the mentally ill would be available, and that those services would be accessible. Unfortunately, neither assumption proved true.”

Experts estimate a need of 50 in-patient psychiatric slots for every 100,000 people. Oklahoma has only 11 per 100,000 residents, and that will decrease next month when Deaconess Hospital closes its 60-bed psychiatric unit in Bethany.

There aren’t even enough beds in the prisons. Only three correctional centers – Joseph Harp, Mabel Bassett and the Oklahoma State Penitentiary – have units dedicated to in-patient care for the mentally ill. That means 98 percent of inmates with severe mental illness are housed in general population and treated as outpatients.

Some mentally ill prisoners were convicted of violent crimes, but 57 percent of inmates who have been diagnosed with a mental illness committed nonviolent offenses.

Oklahoma has begun to use mental health courts as an alternative to incarceration for non-violent, mentally ill offenders. Such courts operate in only 14 of the state’s 77 counties. In those 14 counties, mentally ill offenders can negotiate pleas that divert them to treatment and frequent court contact that help ensure program compliance.

The case for diversion programs is fiscally strong. State records show that the average cost to keep an inmate in prison is $48 per day. If that inmate requires in-patient treatment for mental illness, the cost soars to $175 per day. If the same offender is in a community-based, court-supervised treatment program, the price is just $25 per day.

No one’s interests are served when a mentally ill person is incarcerated for an irrational act; that is, after all, a symptom of the illness. Oklahoma County has a plan to add more mental health counseling, and Midwest City recently teamed up with the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services to offer more treatment and fewer jail days.

We applaud those efforts, but there is a long, long road separating today from reasonable treatment of the state’s mentally ill residents.